Road Rants

[Rageaholic]

Typically, I love driving, but it can be a royal PITA sometimes.

-Construction. Where I live, there's construction everywhere, and it never fails to cause some problem (either slows down traffic or forces you to take an inconvieniant detour). I wouldn't mind it so much if it wasn't so common, but it seems that no matter where you go, something will be blocked off and will get in your way. I've even had times when I went one way to avoid construction only to get detoured again to avoid construction there. It's gotten to the point where I see red when I see those barrels and signs.

-Birds. Yes, birds. Birds like to play a game called "How close can I fly into a moving car and live to tell the tale?". The answer is about 5 maybe 10 feet, because that's when they decide to cross the street; right when it would be nearly impossible to break. Sometimes they fly out and stop right in your path. It's happened so many times, I think they deliberately pick that time to fly in your path.

-Merging lanes. This is a pain because it’s usually on busy streets where you can’t always change lanes without causing an accident. I find myself stuck at the end of the lane waiting for an opening because I am not going to risk my life. What really pisses me off is when some asshole sees you stuck and honks their horn at you. Uh, look asshole, I’m stuck here. And you would be too because it’s the END OF THE LANE. I’m not in your way so why the hell are you honking at me? If it’s that much of an inconvenience to you, than let me in, otherwise shut the hell up!

-Long red lights. Maybe I’m an impatient bastard, but every second waiting for that light can seem like an eternity. I’m sitting their waiting, knowing that the light should have turned green by now, but it’s not. It’s not like I can do anything other than stare at the light because if I lose focus for one second, that may be the second that light turns green, leading to angry people honking at me from behind (and I can’t blame them either). The way I see it, I shouldn’t have to be stuck at a light any longer than 30 seconds. There is no reason to keep you held up that long.

So yeah, I just felt like posting some road rants because those seem to be common rants people have. Feel free to add some of your own.

[Wingates_Hellsing]

One of my college acquaintances was a transportation official. He says they're tired of hearing about 1 and 4. In the case of your first point, it's as a result in many areas (including the guy I know) that they responded to the complaints over road quality by stepping up upkeep. You can choose construction or potholes, entirely up to you. As for 4, the city planners, transport officials and traffic controllers spend an inordinate amount of time and money balancing the system for any given area. It's safe to say that they know more about how long a light needs to be than you, it's their job.

Idiot drivers, however piss me off. But birds usually get wise after a few people just roll right on towards their asses... move or die birdie!

[KellyHabersham]

I'll agree on the long red lights being a pain, only I'm going from a pedestrian's point of view - there's a few intersections in the area where the "green/ok to walk" sign does NOT come on unless you push the button. And with some of those, it takes what I refer to as several cycles before the traffic signal give the "ok" for you to use the crosswalk......I know that repeatedly pushing the button doesn't help, but it takes a LOT longer to cross those streets on foot that it would by driving.

[HYHYBT]

"No more than 30 seconds" is just unworkable for most red lights. Figure, say, five seconds for yellow and three for all-ways red in between, and you've barely given the other direction time to start moving before you've stopped them again. And that's if there's only one other direction: if you have side streets going separately, and turn arrows and so forth, there might be several other sets... and, of course, the less time you leave each way green at a time, the more time is wasted in switching from one to the next instead of letting traffic flow.

I do wish, though, that they'd fix it so that directions that do not have anybody waiting didn't get turns; I sat at one a full minute today with *nobody* going through the intersection at all, because my direction and the opposite (the 'main' road) both had reds, and there was nobody on the others.

[AdminAssistant]

I wish my town would do some fricken' construction. The road that goes by my building is one of the more heavily traveled in town. It's pothole central, and rather than repaving it, they 'patch' some of the worse holes by tossing some asphalt at it. That winds up causing more problems than the pothole did! Shut down traffic! I don't care! But I'm tired of my suspension constantly being shot just from trying to drive to and from campus.

My biggest road rant here is the people don't drive with purpose. They're just on a lazy drive, no worries in the world, but their slow ass caused me to miss that green light. Gah! I think everyone should be required to live in a sizable city for a year, just to learn how to drive efficiently and effectively. When I was in KC, you either drove like you meant it or were run over. Your choice.

[blas87]

I understand why construction is needed (it's an actual season in Wisconsin), but when they do it, they overdo it. Several roads or highways at one time.

The town I used to live in, which is where I work, nearly ALL of the main roads have some construction or road closures going on right now. It's freaking absurd. You have to go 5 miles out of the way to get on the highway because the regular way, there's no longer a road, the actual "main" street of downtown is closed off and being torn apart, the detours are ALL one way streets.

[drunkenwildmage]

A few years ago, we had major construction on the freeway that caused it to go from 3 lanes down to 1, causing major back ups. There was only 1 way to bypass this construction, which used a city road and the state actuality posted it as a recommended way to bypass the construction. So what did our wonderful city do at the same time?... Yep.. that's right.. They completely closed the road to rebuild it, and posted a detour that took you right through the construction site.. It was like that for about 3 or 4 months..

[Rageaholic]

Added rant: What's even worse than road construction is when the sidewalk is closed. I was unable to get to a restaurant I wanted to go because sidewalks on both sides were closed (no car at the time). After having to cross twice, I saw that the sidewalk was still closed and it redirected me to another sidewalk which was under construction.

It may be necessary, but damn it, just seeing those construction gates and barrels is making me see red.

[Red Panda]

I almost hit a guy today who was walking in the street. Come on and get out of the way. He did look like he was retarded, but if thats the case whoever trained him should have taught him better that cars can run you over

[blas87]

Panda, I encourage you to come spend a day or two at my place.

There are quite a few "special" people here who have been declared ok to live on their own, only one of them drives (the worst of all). The rest take the bus or use power wheel chairs and the bus.

Every freaking Friday and Saturday afternoon when I get back from the gym, it's always right when the bus has just brought them back home, and they either walk or roll in the middle of the freaking road back to their apartments.

I don't think they are quite as competent as would be thought, if they can't figure out that you walk on the sidewalk.

[Ree]

OMG...I cannot believe this thread is going to go there in bashing the mentally challenged.

I can just feel the compassion emanating from the last 2 posts.


Back on topic....

[Dreamstalker]

Yesterday I saw a powerchair driver tootling down the train tracks in front of the train I was on to get to the platform (um, that's what the sidewalk is for). Got stuck about every 10 feet due to the ties. How anyone could think that railroad ties are an acceptable surface for one of those things I have no clue.

[blas87]

Mentally challenged or not, no one should be walking or strolling or rolling in the middle of the road when there are sidewalks or plenty of safe room by the curb.

By the way, my street has been dubbed a detour while they tear apart another road nearby, which has always been a busy road. I asked one of my neighbors how long this would last and he said he was told at least a couple of weeks.

So I wonder how this will impact everyone who takes the bus or walks everywhere. It's definetly going to be fun for everyone who is already pissed about having to take a detour that now this road is also a human obstacle course in the afternoon.

[Dreamstalker]

Agreed. Powerchairs/mobility scooters were not designed to travel with the rest of the street traffic. Nobody expects them on the road, they don't keep a reasonable speed for the traffic flow nor can they be seen easily.

[blas87]

It's not just the scooters, the fact that pedestrians are walking all over the road drives me insane. I can't understand why they think it's a good idea to use the middle of the street as their sidewalk.